One Shots [discontinued]

IASWAA | Shelley & Garner

My nostrils were practically flaring as I glared at the insufferable boy before me, my hands curling into fists.  It was ridiculous that I could be arguing here with him when there was so much other stuff to be worrying about.  Dannon and his health for instance.  But here I was, arguing him for what felt like the thousandth time.

“Why do you have to be so annoying?” I demanded, my hands uncurling themselves and going through my hair.  Blond curls found their way through my fingers, soft from the shower I took this morning.  “Dammit, Garner—”

Garner smirked, shoving his hands in his pockets.  He was enjoying himself, I thought with more than a distant sense of irritation.  He was always enjoying himself when it came to pissing me off.  It was like he lived off this.

Though, I didn’t know what I’d do without these arguments.

Usually they were just part of the norm, now I kind of depended on them.  They were a huge distraction, and I was thankful for that.  And I think Garner knew that.  I think he knew how much I really depended on him annoying me.

“You talk too much,” Garner told me.  “I hate that about you.”

My eyebrows drew together angrily.  Seriously?  Seriously?  I could feel the eyes of our friends on us as glared each other down, but I didn’t care.  They were probably amused.  “You’re a pervert!” I retorted.  “I hate that about you.”

“I hate that you boss everyone around!”

“I hate that you do the opposite of what I say just to piss me off!”

“I hate that you made us go watch a chick flick instead of the action movie I wanted to see.”

“I hate that you have a big nose.”

Garner’s hand went up to his nose and I almost snickered.  He didn’t really have that big of a nose, but it was fun to make him paranoid about it.  He scowled as I smirked.  I put my hands on my hips, waiting for what he had next.  My eyes scanned him, attempting to find things that I hated about him so that I could launch it at him after he replied to me.  Oddly, there wasn’t really anything that I actually hated about Garner.  He was probably one of the greatest guys that I’d ever known.  He was irritatingly attractive, and sometimes I found it really hard to argue with him without staring.  I was just lucky he hadn’t caught me yet.

“I hate your hair.”

I gasped, bringing a hand to my hair self-consciously.  I actually loved my hair.  I wasn’t quite sure why, but I did.  And the fact that he insulted it was . . . well, insulting.  “I hate your hair,” I snapped.

Garner took a step closer to me, his hands, like mine, curled into fists.  My eyes widened.  Whenever we had arguments we never really got into each other’s faces.  Usually we stayed a nice distance apart and yelled at each other from there.  This was new territory for me.

“I hate how stubborn you are,” he hissed, a new fire lit in his eyes.  It was a strange fire, one that I couldn’t define.  I liked it, though.  If that was considered weird or not, I wasn’t sure.  But oh well.

I laughed bitterly.  “Oh yeah?  I’m the stubborn one?  I hate how stubborn you are.”

“You’re just copying what I say.”  Garner rolled his eyes.  “I hate how uncreative you are.”

I was really tempted to smack him.  I was creative.  That was just mean.  “I hate the way you eat.  You’re a pig.”

Without even thinking, I took a step closer to him now.  We were so close that Garner could wrap his arms around me if he wanted to.  And, with a distant sense of unease, I realized that I’d be completely okay with that.  I’d been battling feelings like that for a while, and for the most part I could keep them contained.  Today, though, they were stronger than usual.

Weird.

“I hate that—” Garner cut off as his eyes widened.  His eyes scanned me, and I suddenly felt extremely self-conscious.  Why was he looking at me like that?  And why would he stop in the middle of an argument to do it?  It just didn’t make sense.

“Can’t think of anything else?” I teased, my eyebrows rising gracefully as I smirked at my opponent.  I always won the arguments, but never this way.  So this was a pleasant surprise.  “I know I’m practically perfect, but honestly Garner—”

Before I could even process what was going on, Garrett was grabbing ahold of my cheeks and pulling me to him, our lips crashing together.  You would think that I would pull away, would smack him for being so incredibly stupid.  But I didn’t.  No, instead I closed my eyes and kissed him back.  In the few times that I’d imagined myself kissing Garner, I’d never imagined it to be this utterly perfect.

Garner pushed me away, his eyes blazing.  “I hate that I like you anyway!” he practically screamed.  “Dammit, Shelley—”

With a roll of the eyes I pulled him back to me, our lips colliding once again.  I studiously ignored the gapes on Oliver’s, Kyla’s, Meghan’s, and Paula’s faces as we stood there kissing for everyone to see.  The fact that I was actually kissing Garner—Garner—trumped out everything else. 

And then, just like Garner had before, I pushed him away with a scowl at the ready.  “Same here, you idiot!” I hollered.

Garner’s scowl turned into a smile.  I dropped my scowl as well, a breathless smile curling on my lips.  It was so rare that Garner and I actually smiled at each other instead of bickered, and it was always great.  “You’re my girlfriend now,” Garner told me.  “Just so you know.”

My eyes found the sky before turning back to him.  “And what if I don’t want to be your girlfriend?” I snapped playfully.

“Well, you don’t have a choice.”  Garner smirked.  “This time I’m bossing you around.”

I stared at him for a long moment before smiling again.  Garner cocked an eyebrow, apparently not understanding how I could be so unexplainably happy when he’d just taken my job as being the boss of everyone.  It was like he actually thought he was going to boss me around.  Ha!  “Fine,” I drawled, “I’ll be your girlfriend.  But it’s not because you ordered me to.”

“So you’re saying you want to be my girlfriend.”

I whacked him on the shoulder.  “Oh my gosh you are so stupid.  Yes.”

Garner snickered.  “Just making sure.”

From behind us I could hear Kyla giggling.  I spun around, watching with amused eyes as she dialed someone’s number.  She brought her phone to her ear, waiting for whoever she called to pick up.  It was probably Brianne.  She wasn’t at school today.  “Brianne, hey!” she practically squealed.  “I have some exciting news for you.”

I tuned out the rest of her conversation, knowing what she was going to say.  Meghan and Paula ran over and hugged me, squealing into my ear that this one of the most amazing things to ever happen and that she was so happy for me.  I smiled and hugged them back, my eyes flicking to Garner.  He had a smile on his face, something that I really loved to see.  Of course I would never tell him that.

“Hey, how come I don’t get a hug?” Garner demanded.

Meghan and Paula pulled away from me, their eyebrows rising in Garner’s direction.  “Because you hate Joyful Noise,” Meghan replied simply.  “Go ask Oliver for a hug.”

Garner sniffed.  “You know what?  I think I will.”  He turned, a smirk on his face.  Hey, Oliver—”

Garner cut off suddenly, his eyes darkening.  I immediately knew that something was wrong.  Slowly, Meghan, Paula, and I all turned the way Garner was facing.  Oliver and Kyla stood before us, devastated expressions on their faces.  I felt my stomach curl in on itself as my eyes devoured the scene before me.  Oliver looked like he was about to break down and bawl his eyes out right there, right then.  Kyla wasn’t much different.  And, seeing how she just got off the phone with Brianne, I knew something terrible had happened to Dannon.

I brought a hand over my stomach, praying that my voice wouldn’t shake as I asked, “Guys, what’s wrong?”

Kyla sighed shakily, her hand gripping Oliver’s tightly as she answered.  “It’s Dannon,” she said, her voice breaking.  “He’s in a coma.”